From the Editors

Jackie Gotthold, PhD
and Rosalind Chaplin Kindler, MFA

Our enduring interest in bridging the child-adult gap in ongoing psychoanalytic conversations has happily led us to the two articles which grace this edition of the Self Psychology Newsletter. As child therapists know and these articles emphasize, the treatment of children is never a de-contextualized endeavor. There are many subjectivities in the consultation room 'operating' silently or at top volume. Issues emerge which range from impaired cognitive capacities and learning difficulties to serious attachment and relational disturbances within the family.

These two excellent contributions reflect the application of Self Psychological principles to the far reaching realms of child psychoanalytic treatment. They also represent an effort to tackle those aspects of a child's treatment that on the surface may appear to be outside the realm of the psychoanalyst, but yet may be the very essence of the work. In her article on learning disabilities, Margaret Amerongen of Toronto, a specialist in working with the families of children with learning problems, informs us of the newly established International Forum on Learning Disabilities. IFoLD, as Amerongen notes, is a Forum for the consideration of the effects of learning disabilities on the treatment of children and their parents. The application of the principles of Self Psychology theory to this arena is an obviously good "fit". An empathic understanding of the impact on the parents of a child with LD is vital, as is an understanding of the mutual selfobject needs of both parent and child who find themselves in such a situation. Amerongen has described, in a recent presentation of this work, how disappointments, un-met needs, and experiences of loss may touch each family member in a different way.

With her article on the effectiveness of conjoint family sessions, Carla Leone, a child and family therapist from Chicago, addresses our very "real" anxieties surrounding our own selfobject needs for control, mastery and competence. Leone offers some calming reassurance and plain common sense to those of us who may become intimidated by the idea of "all those subjectivities" literally in the room at the same time, instead of figuratively. She suggests that, as Self Psychologists, we have indeed developed the capacity to be empathically attuned to the intersubjective experience of each family member, and that this may be crucially important to the successful outcome of a child's treatment.

Both of these articles, we believe, are further examples of how, in our work with children, we can continue to span the distance between adult and child work in psychoanalysis.

Top of this Page      Newsletter Front Page